Henry Nielsen (athlete)

Holger Henry Nielsen (2 October 1910 – 18 November 1969) was a Danish middle- and long-distance runner. Nielsen held the 3000 m world record from 1934 to 1936 and placed third in men's 10,000 metres at the 1934 European Championships.

Henry Nielsen

Nielsen in 1930
Personal information
Born	2 October 1910[1] Nørresundby, Denmark
Died	18 November 1969 (aged 59) Hillerød, Denmark
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Club	Velo, Nørresundby
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	3,000 m: 8:18.3 (1934) 5,000 m: 14:52.6 (1934) 10,000 m: 31:13.3 (1933)[2][3]
Medal record Representing  Denmark European Championships 1934 Turin 10,000 m

Career

Early in his career Nielsen trained in Finland, which was the leading distance-running country at the time, and learned from Finnish runners.[4] He won his first Danish championship title at 5000 m in 1930.[5] Nielsen broke the 3000 m world record in Stockholm on 25 July 1934; he faced Poland's Janusz Kusociński, who held the previous record of 8:18.8, and defeated him.[4][5] Nielsen's winning time was 8:18.3;[4][5] as a world record, it was officially ratified as 8:18.4, since the IAAF's rules required times at the distance to be rounded up to the next fifth of a second.[4][6] Later that year, Nielsen won bronze in the 10,000 m at the inaugural European Championships in Turin, losing only to Finland's Ilmari Salminen and Arvo Askola; he was Denmark's only medalist in the meet.[7]

Nielsen competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics in the 5000 m, but failed to qualify from the heats.[1] He was eventually excluded from amateur sports for breaking amateur rules by receiving monetary prizes.[5] His world record was broken by Finland's Gunnar Höckert, who ran 8:14.8 in September 1936.[6][8]

References

1. "Henry Nielsen Bio, Stats and Results". Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
2. All-Time List As At 31 December 1945, Association of Track and Field Statisticians
3. Henry Nielsen. trackfield.brinkster.net
4. Jukola, Martti (1935). Huippu-urheilun historia (in Finnish). Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö.
5. "Danmarks første verdensmester i atletik" (in Danish). Aalborgs idrætsarkiv. Archived from the original on 11 January 2012.
6. Butler, Mark; IAAF Media & Public Relations Department (2013). IAAF Statistics Handbook Moscow 2013. International Association of Athletics Federations.
7. Jalava, Mirko (2014). "European Athletics Championships Zürich 2014: Statistics Handbook" (PDF). European Athletics. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
8. "New Distance Record". Greeley Daily Tribune. 17 September 1936. Retrieved 27 December 2014.